Denver Nuggets’ Danilo Gallinari (L) of Italy celebrates a three-pointer with team mate Ty Lawson (L) late in the fourth quarter of their NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers in Los Angeles January 6, 2013. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

It’s a quote that has sort of hovered above Danilo Gallinari in years since, like the crown of anointment the premature quote was.

Of the then-Knicks forward, the then-Knicks coach said, “He’s the best shooter I’ve ever seen.”

To be fair, D’Antoni “led the NBA in flippant remarks last season,” New York Daily News writer Frank Isola wrote in that day’s paper. But Isola pointed out that the coach wasn’t kidding about Gallo, who was heading into his second season.

And here we were Sunday night in Los Angeles, with Gallinari and the Nuggets facing D’Antoni and the Lakers. Gallo had entered the game with 19 points in both previous season matchups against Los Angeles, and he has had a fascinating stretch of late. He entered the night shooting 48.5 percent in his previous five games, exceptionally higher than his 40.5 for the season.

Saturday at the Pepsi Center, the Italian forward had a monster night, scoring 26 points in the win against Utah, and doing so on 7-for-11 shooting (and 11- for-12 free throws).

When Gallinari scores big at home, the Nuggets win. Like, every time. Denver is 8-0 at the Pepsi Center in games when Gallinari scores 20 or more points. And Denver is 4-0 overall this season when he scores 26 or more points with at least five rebounds.

“I think he can be a great player — he’s a good player, a real good player, and he has all the tools,” D’Antoni said before the Nuggets-Lakers game. “It’s funny, when he came in the league they said he couldn’t guard, and I thought it was the best thing he did, his defense. And he’s matured into a really good basketball player. And as he gets more comfortable, I think he’ll lead even more because he has a great mentality.”

The 24-year-old forward scored a career-high 39 points Dec. 28 at Dallas, and did so on efficient 14-for-23 shooting. Then he had seven, 17 and 12, heading into the game against the Jazz.

“I think he’s hungrier. I think he’s more assertive,” Nuggets coach George Karl said before Saturday’s game. “He always plays pretty well in big games, and we’ve been playing a lot of big games, so I think that helps his confidence from a standpoint of competitive juice. The thing from all our young guys that I want is more consistency — more consistency of intensity, more consistency of execution, more consistency of intelligence. Too many of our games we’ve had spikes up and spikes down, and I don’t think that’s the trait of an ultrasuccessful basketball team.”

Lakers’ woes. Los Angeles is struggling, and big man Pau Gasol averages just 12.7 points per game. Asked about L.A.’s big-man situation, with Dwight Howard and Gasol, Karl said: “The only thing I think is somewhat to separate the bigs more, playing them apart more — there’s 15 to 20 minutes that you don’t have to play them together. Does he agree to that? I don’t know that. But I believe Pau Gasol is a (good) basketball player, and I know he’s very frustrated right now.”

Benjamin Hochman was a sports columnist for The Denver Post until August 2015 before leaving for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, his hometown newspaper. Hochman previously worked for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for its Hurricane Katrina coverage. Hochman wrote the Katrina-themed book “Fourth and New Orleans,” published in 2007.

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